On Friday 17 November, Councillor Bridget Steer called a meeting with Gibb and JDA representatives who have replaced Urban Soup as the writers and presenters of the Melville Precinct Plan. She invited the MRA committee to attend the meeting.

At last sighting of the Precinct Plan, following participation of stakeholders, of whom the residents of Melville are by far the largest component – compromise was reached with fewer reservations among the MRA PP subcommittee than was the case at the outset.

In the time that the committee members were able to remain at yesterday’s meeting (it continued in our absence), some bombshells were delivered, viz:

• The proposed increase of residential units in Melville from 1,918 to 4,619 – a staggering 240%.
• According to these paid experts, Melville presently has only 2,2 people per residential unit.

Our opposition to what appeared to be a totally new reading of the workshop interaction and results was met by another blow – the group was resistant to sharing their draft document with everyone “because they were still working on it”.

We pointed out that the community has consistently been advised that there were no densification plans for Melville, and that our input would hold sway.

Furthermore, since the beginning of the Precinct Plan process, the MRA committee repeatedly called for minutes of all the focus group meetings and to date we have not received any such information.

The consultants have posted their intention to hold a public meeting on Thursday, 23 November 2017, to present their proposals and call for comments over the ensuing 21 days.

The MRA committee is unimpressed by the timing of the meeting and the window period for proposals – which fall over the festive season thus leaving very little opportunity for active community participation.

The Precinct Plan proposal, which may well change before presentation, currently stands at 116-pages, which the consultants have requested should not be copied or circulated ahead of the meeting though they capitulated on our Councillor’s urging to release four copies among us, which we have yet to receive.

Councillor Steer is urgently addressing many of the concerns raised by the MRA members present at yesterday’s meeting.

We urge you to attend next week’s meeting (final details to be announced). We need your support now more than ever, to ensure a brighter future for Melville.

Please do not hesitate to contact the MRA PP subcommittee  (mra-pp@ilovemelville.co.za) should you have any queries/concerns/feedback